Kyrgyz Officials Shut Down Alcohol-Smuggling Pipeline

A new pipeline between the Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was until recently pumping away. Not oil, though — moonshine.

Customs and border officials in Kyrgyzstan uncovered the "makeshift underwater pipeline" on the bed of the Chu River, which divides the two countries. Officials think smugglers have sent thousands of liters of grain alcohol through the conduit from Kazakhstan.